CHARMING, APPROACHABLE AND HONEST, THIS STUNNINGLY BEAUTIFUL ACTRESS WOULD JUST LIKE TO BE KNOWN AS A 'HARD WORKER.

Halle Berry is more beautiful up close and in person than one might imagine.

And she's such a nice person, too.

So much for finding flaws in the 28-year-old actress/model, who stopped off in South Florida to promote her latest movie, B.A.P.S. (Black American Princesses), opening Friday. Berry dropped by Planet Hollywood in Coconut Grove to donate the body-hugging, eye-popping iridescent orange pantsuit she wears in the film.

Berry fans will see the star as never before ("Good, it'll keep them guessing," she says) in this comedy about an Atlanta woman who dreams of owning her own restaurant/beauty salon. Often portrayed as elegant and well-spoken, Berry plays Nisi, a slang-talking girl from the 'hood.

After signing autographs and waving sweetly to lunching fans, Berry and her tiny entourage stash away to Planet Hollywood's second-floor dining area to meet the press.

Images of Arnold, Demi and Bruce float across huge porthole-shaped screens as Berry settles into the C-shaped leather seat.

Her cropped hair stylishly swept away from her face and her makeup artist only yards away, Berry idly shreds bits of paper with her fingers. Her champagne-colored nails are trimmed low. A black jacket covers her lacy, taupe dress. ("It's freezing in here," she says, smiling.)

Berry is gracious and comfortable as she talks about how people react to her stunning looks.

"I've seen stars in person and they didn't look anything like they did in the movies or magazines. So when people see me, it's like they see I look the way they expect me to look."

Ah, a diplomatic response. She doesn't say, "Don't hate me because I'm beautiful," but she doesn't have to.

Indeed, it seems difficult to find reasons to hate or even dislike Berry. She's charming, approachable and honest. She says she wants fans to remember her as a "hard worker," someone who didn't have to compromise herself for fame.

As a kid growing up in Cleveland, Berry never thought she'd be a star. Like most kids, she wanted to be like her mom. "My mom was a nurse in a psychiatric ward. I was always fascinated with psychiatry," she says.

After her high school boyfriend entered his cheerleading sweetheart's photo in a beauty contest _ and she won _ Berry's aspirations shifted from nursing and medicine to pageants and bright lights.

Berry launched a modeling career, then moved into acting. Her first big screen break came in 1991 in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever, where she played a scheming, dirty-faced crack addict.

When the grime and grit was washed away, however, Berry showed her delicate features and sparkling smile. Those qualities helped land her the role of the sexy, midriff baring femme fatale in The Flintstones and the object of desire in Strictly Business.

But her assets nearly became liabilities while competing for her role in Losing Isaiah.

"The studio really didn't want me," she says. Even so, perseverance paid off and Berry won what was to become her favorite role.

Berry played Khalia, a drug addict who leaves her baby in the trash and believes him dead. Years later, after she completes rehab, Khalia tries to reclaim her son, only to learn he's been adopted by a white social worker (Jessica Lange). "It was a prevalent issue and it made viewers think. As a piece of work, I really enjoyed doing it."

Co-starring Martin Landau and Natalie Desselle, B.A.P.S. is about friendship and doing the right thing.

Berry shows some physical fine-tuning in the outrageous costumes she wears in the movie. Along with the orange pantsuit donated to Planet Hollywood's collection, Berry's body undulates beneath many urban outfits, including a clingy, lime sundress and black unitard. Her well-sculpted figure is especially hard to miss in one scene where she climbs out of a swimming pool in a shiny two-piece.

And since Berry made close-cropped hair popular for black women well before Toni Braxton sashayed to the forefront, it's no wonder her hair is like a second costume.

However, in B.A.P.S., Berry has "mo" hair than a sweater. She and Desselle wear 'dos straight from the flea market, with sprayed-on lettering and more mousse than a Bullwinkle family reunion.

Berry admits having reservations about the role, saying, "I didn't want to look stupid; I wanted to be funny." But the film's comedic director Robert Townsend (Hollywood Shuffle ) helped Berry find her funny bone.

In a call from New York, Townsend says working with Berry was "a lot of fun. Halle went along for the ride." Townsend says he studied Berry's previous works and noticed she had a particular look, a particular style. "I wanted to change that," he says.

And change it he did!

Townsend says Berry spent as much as two hours in makeup to be transformed into the golden-haired, gold-toothed Nisi.

Even though her looks change drastically, Townsend says Halle still comes through the character.

"There are pieces of Nisi in Halle," he says. "A sweetness, a genuine naivete that are definitely Halle. I think it's one of her best films."

The tried (and tired?) formula may work better for Berry than it did for Geary _ didn't he return to General Hospital not long after that? And no matter what happens, she says doing the movie made her happy.

"It was good clean fun. No violence. No gratuitous sex. A movie you could take the family to see. I liked that."

Making B.A.P.S. and Bullworth, a Warren Beatty film to be released later this year, allowed Berry to focus on work _ not on her love life this past year. She says her well-publicized divorce from Atlanta Braves outfielder Dave Justice took a lot out of her.

Her schedule left little time to think about romance or dating. "If anybody had said anything to me about dating last year . . ." she rolls her eyes. Her toy Malteses, Bumper and Petey, became her main companions.

But don't think Berry's marital lumps sent her sense of romance to the dogs.

"When the whole thing is behind me, I look forward to getting back out there," she says. "And dating again."